a roar of angry voices:

'We've finished with Crowds! We aren't going back to the Old Days! Take
us over! Take the Serviles away! Administer direct or we'll kill 'em!
Down with The People!'

An attempt was made to begin MacDonough's Song. It got no further than
the first line, for the _Victor Pirolo_ sent down a warning drone on one
stopped horn. A wrecked side-wall of the Old Market tottered and fell
inwards on the slag-pools. None spoke or moved till the last of the dust
had settled down again, turning the steel case of Salad's Statue
ashy grey.

'You see you'll just _have_ to take us over,' the Mayor whispered.

De Forest shrugged his shoulders.

'You talk as if executive capacity could be snatched out of the air like
so much horse-power. Can't you manage yourselves on any terms?' he said.

'We can, if you say so. It will only cost those few lives to begin
with,'

The Mayor pointed across the square, where Arnott's men guided a
stumbling group of ten or twelve men and women to the lake front and
halted them under the Statue.

'Now I think,' said Takahira under his breath, 'there will be trouble.'

The mass in front of us growled like beasts.